Where are we now?

Again, I really think living in a house makes it feel wrong to be writing here.  But anyway, after a 2-week trip down the Intracoastal Waterway and a jaunt offshore with some old Maryland dock neighbors, Frank got the boat to Jacksonville, FL.  It's been there at the marina on the Naval Air Station since mid-October.  Now between my work travel, jobs, school, and helpful grandparents I think we are just about ready to make the next big leg around FL and maybe all the way to a new home.  The journey begins in two and a half weeks!

Landlubber's delight

It's been a while, but the move to land (and travel, a change in jobs, planning to move the boat...) cramped my writing a bit.

This weekend we used Craig's List to complete outfitting the family with our preferred bikes.  For Frank that meant a sweet mountain bike.  For our little girl, it was a real road bike.  Both were good deals, with the road bike only needing new tires and the mountain bike ready to ride.  The boys already hit a trail together!  If we have to live on land this will help!

Move day 2--done!

This was such a long day.  It started out with a nice surprise though--coffee with my old USS SHOUP-mate, Darlene!  It was so sweet of her to drive and meet us along the highway for a brief visit.  We didn't have as many rack issues today, but driving "trailer speed" really stretched the day out.  The kids were awesome and tracked our progress using the road atlas.  When we got into town around 7 we headed straight for the house.  It looks pretty good!  We detached the trailer, got take out from Mr. Joe, picked up some daiquiris, and settled on to the hotel.  We made it!

Move day 1--done.

After waking at 4:30 and spending 11hrs on the road (with lots of stops), we are about halfway to our new home.  We had a few stops to get the paddle board strapped on correctly and we are all struggling with driving below 65mph with the trailer, but we are getting there!  Knoxville, TN is our stop for tonight.  Can't wait to get there and stop eating a ton of junk food!!!

Ready to go

After a fairly stressful few weeks of boat maintenance, household goods shipments, work, school, cleaning, and packing, we are ready to leave.  Sort of.  We are really going to miss this place and the people we've met!

Katreina spent last night with her friends for an epic art/farewell party.  I can't thank moms Melissa and Heather enough!

I was up early today to start the final purge and cleaning fest.  It was worth it--sunrise was beautiful and final packing went well.